Ukraine will not give up Crimea: minister

Ukraine's acting foreign minister said on Saturday his country would not give up Crimea and would do all in its power to resolve the crisis over the Black Sea peninsula peacefully.

"Crimea is and will be Ukrainian territory and we will not give up Crimea to anyone," Andriy Deshchytsia told a news conference in the Ukrainian capital Kiev.

Referring to deaths this year during protests against Ukraine's now deposed leader, Viktor Yanukovich, he said: "We are putting all our efforts into solving this matter through diplomacy - we have already had too many victims."